Chrystia Freeland wins world’s best diplomat award (PLUS Lindsay Shepherd sues Laurier U)
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Summary
Canadian foreign minister Chrystia Freeland wins an award for being the world s best diplomat. Is this a sign that Trudeau and Freeland don t actually want to deal with Donald Trump? Or is this an indication that they don t even want to try to get a deal with him?
Transcript
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Tonight, Canada's Chrystia Freeland wins an award for the world's best diplomat.
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It's June 14th, and you're watching The Ezra LeVant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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You come here once a year with a sign, and you feel morally superior.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my
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So Chrystia Freeland, Canada's foreign minister, she won an award for being the world's bestest
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It reminds me of Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize immediately after he was inaugurated.
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But the Norwegian Parliamentary Committee that makes such decisions liked the cut of his
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They liked that he was a leftist, so he won it.
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I mean, seriously, just days after Donald Trump's historic meeting with Kim Jong-un,
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a meeting that U.S. senior diplomat Mike Pompeo, first as a CIA director and now as a secretary
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of state, Mike Pompeo handled many of the operational details of that.
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Chrystia Freeland is the best diplomat in the world.
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I mean, I remember when she just nailed that European trade deal.
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We have worked very hard with the European Commission and with many countries and members of the
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But it seems clear for me, for the Canada, that the European Union is not able to have an international
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Even with a country with a country that has such European values such as the Canada, and even with
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a country that is so gentile and with a lot of patience like the Canada, and even with a
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country that is so gentile and with a lot of patience like the Canada, and even with a
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country that is so gentile and with a lot of patience like the Canada, and even with a country that is so gentile and with a lot of patience like the Canada.
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Yeah, that's falling apart now, that trade deal, as you may know, Italy wants out of it.
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The European Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, and I call each other sisters in trade.
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We sometimes send each other smiley faces in particularly difficult moments.
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No, I don't think that's why they said she was the best.
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Was it for the diplomatic successes of Trudeau's big trip to India?
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Oh, was it for her deft touch during the NAFTA negotiations?
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I mean, these people have literally months of experience in negotiating international trade deals or something.
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Or I don't know, they read about it on Wikipedia or something.
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Like Obama's Nobel Prize, this was not a recognition of achievement.
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It was bestowing a political agreement by the group that gave her the prize.
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So it was really just a way of saying, we don't like Donald Trump, so we like someone who's anti-Trump.
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And being given this award, the award I put it to you, is actually a dangerous sign.
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If you're winning this award, you know, if you're actually in real life trying to get a deal with Trump,
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you don't want this award because it's only given to Trump haters.
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But maybe Trudeau and Freeland don't actually want to deal with Trump.
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Trump and Pompeo have a successful summit with North Korea that, if it fulfills its promise,
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will be the biggest diplomatic achievement in half a century.
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But Chrystia Freeland is awarded the bestest diplomat in the history of the whole world,
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But if you think that is lame, check out her acceptance speech.
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Now, I'm going to try and be fair and give it credit where due.
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But let's just start from the start where she just riffs off the cuff a bit.
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I'm also very Canadian, so I'm quite flustered to have so many nice things said about me.
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We believe modesty is a virtue in Canada, and this is sort of not in that zone.
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Yeah, I actually do think modesty is a Canadian trait, but bragging about being modest is sort of a Trudeau liberal trait,
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because it's a kind of self-praise, especially when you're trying to tweak Trump's nose.
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And it's true for Joe Canadian, but it's not really true for Justin Trudeau, is it?
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Anyways, let's look at Freeland's speech on its own terms.
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So, tonight, I would like to speak about a challenge that affects us all, and I believe worries us all,
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and that is the weakening of the rules-based international order
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and the threat that resurgent authoritarianism poses to liberal democracy.
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She starts out by praising what she calls rules-based systems for how countries get along with each other.
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But that really doesn't have anything to do with authoritarianism versus a liberal democracy, does it?
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I mean, whether or not a country follows its trade treaties, for example,
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what does that have to do with how it treats its own people domestically?
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Now, we harbored no illusions then that institutions such as the WTO or the IMF or the World Bank or the UN were perfect,
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or that our own democracies at home, with their sausage-making methods of legislating and governing, were without flaw.
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But there was a broad consensus that the Atlantic nations plus Japan led an international system of rules
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that had allowed our peoples to thrive and which would surely continue to do so.
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See, right there, do you think that countries thrive because of foreign treaties?
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Or is it maybe more because of freedom and democracy within their own borders?
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Really, what does the World Bank or the IMF have to do with how well a country does?
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I mean, they usually come in to the failed states.
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I mean, freedom, free markets, the rule of law, independent courts, property rights,
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that's what makes a country's people unleash their opportunity and be strong.
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Not the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank that give loans with conditions and manipulate currencies.
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In Latin America, in the Caribbean, in Africa, and in Asia,
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developing countries have joined these institutions and accepted their rules,
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and that has delivered ever greater living standards to their people.
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Is that really why those countries have higher living standards?
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Because of rules imposed on them by globalist, unelected bureaucracies?
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In fact, Switzerland is not rich because it's in the United Nations or other treaties.
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It's actually rather neutral and apart from other deals.
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It's rich because it's free and civilized and democratic.
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She says it's globalism that makes countries rich, but they can still be unfree, actually.
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She's muddled in her thinking, which is typical of Trudeau's team,
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strong on cliches and talking points and one-liners,
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That was the idea that, as authoritarian countries joined the global economy and grew rich,
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they would inevitably adopt Western political freedoms, too.
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Indeed, in recent years, even some democracies have gone in the other direction
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and slipped into authoritarianism, notably and tragically, Venezuela.
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And some countries that had embarked on the difficult journey from communism to democratic capitalism
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Even China, whose economic success in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty
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is one of the great accomplishments of recent times,
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stands as a rebuke to our belief in the inevitability of liberal democracy.
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But to say that China follows the rules of international law is laughably false.
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Whether it's about human rights, treaties, or trade treaties,
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There is no such thing as an international law.
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There's no international legislature that writes laws.
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There's no international court that judges laws.
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There's no international police force that implements those laws.
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I think she's groping for a common thread here.
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It's not foreign treaties or international law.
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It's that all those countries restrict the freedom of their own people.
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She moves from that complaint to complaining about free Western countries.
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And within the club of wealthy Western nations,
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we are seeing homegrown anti-democratic forces on the rise.
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Whether they are neo-Nazis, white supremacists, incels, nativists, or radical anti-globalists,
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such movements seek to undermine our democracies from within.
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Are neo-Nazis a political or economic or diplomatic force anywhere in the world?
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I mean, there are some white supremacist people in the world.
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What does this have to do with what she calls international rules-based foreign policy, again?
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She used the word, a word none of us had heard until a couple of months ago when some guy in
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North Toronto drove a truck down a sidewalk killing people.
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And he allegedly made a Facebook comment before he did that about being an incel, which is
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So some murderer makes a Facebook post about not being able to get a date, and that is proof
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that he represents a deep thrust to Western civilization on par with authoritarian regimes
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But my favorite, or least favorite line, there is radical anti-globalists.
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As in someone who wants decisions to be made in their own region, not by some foreign United
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So Christia Freeland is sort of condemning Brexit, isn't she?
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And the governments in Italy and Hungary and elsewhere in the world who are rejecting the
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one-world government that the UN points to, that Christia Freeland loves.
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But how is being a radical local democracy activist, how is that authoritarian to be anti-UN
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Isn't being anti-globalist, by definition, very democratic?
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You're against anonymous bureaucrats at the UN or the EU making decisions for you.
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She then indulges in some vague paranoia about Russia hacking elections.
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Obviously, she's a Hillary Clinton supporter who's just parroting the talking points there.
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right after her spat with Donald Trump over NAFTA.
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Why are liberal democracies vulnerable at home?
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Angry populism thrives where the middle class is hollowed out, where people are losing ground
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and losing hope, even as those at the very top are doing better than ever.
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I mean, that's where the word populist, population, comes from, right?
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Democracy channels populism peacefully, safely, to allow countries to change their political
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Isn't the opposite of populism authoritarianism?
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The opposite of listening to the people is forcing your views on the people.
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Isn't the wonderful miracle of throwing out bad leaders peacefully, like was just done
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Isn't the United Nations or the European Union or the World Bank or the IMF, aren't those
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anti-democratic because they're immune to the will of the people that they seek to rule over?
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When people feel their economic future is in jeopardy, when they believe their children
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have fewer opportunities than they themselves had in their youth, that's when people are
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vulnerable to the demagogue who scapegoats the outsider, the other, whether it's immigrants
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Is she talking about Trump, but like Justin Trudeau, she lacks the courage to actually name
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That's how the CBC state broadcasters are spinning that.
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But Trump has brought record low unemployment to America, a surging economic growth rate.
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Concessions are being made to America from China, from Germany, and surely soon from Canada.
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Why is she still talking as if Trump is taking advantage of poor people as opposed to Trump
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But sure, she'll snipe at anti-immigrant sentiments, another veil reference to Donald Trump and
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You know, only 8% of Canadians want more immigration, according to the Liberal Party's own polls.
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Talk about anti-democracy to push for open borders in the face of those poll numbers.
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Isn't she the one who just claimed Russia was hacking elections?
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The fact is, middle class working families aren't wrong to feel left behind.
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Housing, child care, and education harder to afford.
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Look, I've been critical, but let me show you one sentence from her speech that I agree
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But setting our own house in order is just one part of the struggle.
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The truth is that authoritarianism is on the march, and it's time for liberal democracy
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So what about Trudeau's favorite countries, like Iran, with whom he's rebuilding business
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relations and offering to renew diplomatic ties?
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China, that Trudeau says is his favorite country because of its basic dictatorship.
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There's a level of admiration I actually have for China, because their basic dictatorship
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is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime.
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He likes China's basic dictatorship because it gets things done quickly.
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And here's Chrystia Freeland last night on just that subject.
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Authoritarianism is also often justified as a more efficient way of getting things done.
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No wrenching shift from one short-termist governing party to another.
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How much more effective, the apologists argue, for a paramount leader with a long-term vision,
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Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what Justin Trudeau says he likes about China.
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I'm sorry I'm showing you so much, but I want to show it to you.
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I know you're not going to see this anywhere else.
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Let me show you what Chrystia Freeland said about America.
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Biggest diplomatic fiasco since, well, I guess India.
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Trump offered a concession in private to Justin Trudeau.
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And the concession was about the five-year expiration of NAFTA.
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And then when Trump got on his plane and left, in public, Trudeau had a press conference
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saying Trump was insulting Canadians and pushing us around.
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Right after Trump made a concession and gave Trudeau what he wanted, of course Trump was
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In fact, Trump said that little outburst by the shiny pony is going to cost Canada a lot
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The 232 tariffs introduced by the United States are illegal under WTO and NAFTA rules.
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They are not a response to unfair actions by other countries that put American industry
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They are a naked example of the United States putting its thumb on the scale in violation
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Canada has no choice but to retaliate with a measured, perfectly reciprocal, dollar-for-dollar
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We act in close collaboration with our like-minded partners in the EU and Mexico.
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They, too, are your allies, and they share our astonishment and our resolve.
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Yeah, I'm guessing that crack team of Christian's angels wrote this speech.
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I hear that when you're in an insult fight with Donald Trump, the best way to win is
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I mean, it's not like the U.S. economy is 10 times larger than Canada's.
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If Canada and U.S. trade were to fall in half because of an insane Armageddon trade war,
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I don't even think it could ever get that bad, well, that would reduce U.S. GDP by 1%.
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It's not great for America, but they're on pace for, what, 4%, 4.5% record GDP growth
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So you take 1% off that, that's not even going to dent it.
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But if you cut Canada-U.S. trade in half, that would reduce Canadian GDP by 10%.
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In other words, it would be the worst depression in Canada since the Dirty 30s.
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The price will be paid, in part, by American consumers and American businesses.
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Yeah, not really, sister, but no, she's going to take on Trump in America, and the media love
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Today, the U.S. economy stands at just a quarter of the world's.
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Together, the EU, Canada, and Japan, your allies in the G7 and beyond, account for just
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China, meanwhile, produces nearly 20% of the world's GDP, and in our lifetimes, its economy
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So is she saying we can go it alone without the United States?
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I think she's saying she might get to like China better, I think.
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If Trump doesn't want to give her what she wants, maybe China will.
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Maybe her speech writing team was split in two or something.
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But I think she's saying that if she doesn't get her way, if Donald Trump doesn't bow down
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before globalism and the United Nations and do what she says, he's, well, listen to her
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One answer is to give up on the rules-based international order, to give up on the Western
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alliance, and to seek to survive in a Meternikian world defined not by common values, mutually
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agreed upon rules, and shared prosperity, but rather by a ruthless struggle between the
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great powers governed solely by the narrow, short-term, and mercantilist pursuit of self-interest.
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But you, still the world's largest economy, may be tempted.
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Boy, I'd like to see her say that to Donald Trump's face.
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But please do not let Chrystia Freeland say that to Trump's face.
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Nobody bring this speech to Trump's attention, please.
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There is just too much kookiness in this speech to show it all to you.
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To hold the door open to new friends, to countries that have their own troubled past,
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such as Tunisia, Senegal, Indonesia, Mexico, Botswana, or Ukraine.
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Yeah, that's Canada's economic and military future.
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As the West's relative might inevitably declines, now is the time when, more than ever, we must
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Chrystia Freeland is not the world's best diplomat.
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Trudeau said so himself when he appointed her to cabinet.
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Most of the time, being a token doesn't matter.
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It's embarrassing, but really, who cares, other than our lack of self-respect and the humiliation
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But Chrystia Freeland is the woman who is personally leading our NAFTA negotiations.
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That might have been seen as problematic by some of the students, maybe even threatening.
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I don't see how someone would rationally think it was threatening.
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I could see how it might challenge their existing ideas, but for me, that's the spirit of the
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university, is challenging ideas that you already have.
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It's one or multiple students who have come forward saying that this is something that
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they were concerned about and that it made them uncomfortable.
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You're perfectly welcome to your own opinions, but when you're bringing it into the context
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And that can become something that creates an unsafe learning environment for students.
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But when they leave the university, they're going to be exposed to these ideas.
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So I don't see how I'm doing a disservice to the class by exposing them to ideas that
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I'm stressed out because this to me is so wrong.
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As you know, that is an excerpt from an interrogation of Lindsay Shepard, a young woman who is a
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I'm not going to say prosecuted because that implies rules and norms.
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She was being persecuted, bullied, to use a phrase, by politically correct professors.
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You heard one of them there saying she was creating an unsafe learning environment for
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daring to show a short clip of Professor Jordan Peterson in the context of a debate.
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Well, very thoughtfully, Lindsay Shepard recorded that conversation.
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I don't think people would have believed that it could have been that bad had she not
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Well, she managed to beat back that persecution just through the sheer weight of public opinion.
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I think it's safe to say that Lindsay Shepard has been blackballed and blacklisted in academia.
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And in fact, in recent days, she has filed a $3.6 million lawsuit against Wilfrid Laurier
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for doing just that, for making her unemployable because of their aspersions.
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Joining us now via Skype is her lawyer, Howard Leavitt.
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Familiar to our viewers, he's a high-profile lawyer.
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He writes popular law columns for the National Post.
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And I'm delighted that you're representing Lindsay Shepard.
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I'm delighted I'm representing Lindsay Shepard.
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Well, and I'm not just praising you because I like you.
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I know that she went to you when she was being interrogated for help to navigate the
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And you gave her counsel even in that first instance.
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Right from the outset, we refused to participate in the investigation the university held.
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And everything since then has proved that we were right.
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One of the things you write about a lot in the National Post is employment law, as in
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there's a right way to fire someone in a wrong way, a right way to have an internal
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Can you list for me, in your view, some of the things that Wilfrid Laurier did wrong?
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Because, of course, a university should have the ability to take a student, a professor,
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a teaching assistant to task if they do something genuinely wrong.
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But tell me procedurally and substantively some of the things that Wilfrid Laurier did
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Well, first of all, they didn't follow any of their own procedures, any of them.
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And I delineate that in detail in the statement of claim.
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Secondly, they invented a fictitious complaint or complaints.
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We just heard that in the short passage you played about the complaint or complaints.
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And in fact, when Rabbi Buchanan apologized initially, he said, well, really, I had to
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He said, well, I really had to deal with the complaints I received.
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And of course, there were no complaints, as we've absolutely ascertained.
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And it's one thing to reprimand someone for something they do that's wrong, but it has
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In fact, if you look at the Wilfrid Laurier Act, which gives us its jurisdiction legally,
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And they were brutal and abusive, three on one for 55 minutes.
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And then after she leaves Rabbi Buchanan's tutelage, if I can call it that, she gets to point to
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another professor who's already taken a public position against her and then treats her in
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a way that she has real complaint with following that.
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So everything I've done from beginning to end has been atrocious.
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Now, the 55-minute interrogation, which so many of us have heard, was shocking.
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I was even pleased that reporters who generally are sympathetic to political correctness,
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they were so shocked by this one instance, by the recording, that I think they rallied to
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I was actually pleased with the mass of reporters in Canada, commentators.
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I think they were generally on her side because it was so egregious.
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But that's what happened in their private interrogation.
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Did the university also have a bit of a PR strategy to throw Lindsay under the bus
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I mean, the interrogation itself was bad enough and we heard her breaking into tears.
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She was at our Rebel Live conference just a couple of weeks ago.
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Like, I don't think she's a battle warrior who loves to fight.
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I mean, she struck me as someone who was pushed into this role unwillingly, almost.
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Did they abuse her in public in other ways, too, Howard?
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Destiny sought her out for certain in this case.
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And now she realizes what an important mission she's inadvertently become part of.
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And she doesn't want what's happened to her to continue happening.
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She realizes how treacherous campus life is and how hard people have to fight to purify it
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from the rancor of political correctness on campus.
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So, since she's been treated, anyway, go ahead with your question as a result.
00:31:19.540
I mean, you're confirming my sense that she didn't choose this.
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She was thrust into it, but she's risen to the occasion.
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I sort of put a double-barreled question at you.
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Other than that interrogation, has the university done...
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I haven't read the statement of claim yet, but maybe we can post it underneath this video
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I'd like to read it carefully all the way through.
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And I know that it's your allegations the university has yet to reply with their statement
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As you know, I'm limited in what I can say publicly.
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It's a little bit like the Casey Hill case where he was sued for a million dollars for
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talking about a statement of claim on the floor or just outside the legislature.
00:32:07.200
So, I don't want to delineate the grounds, but I can say this.
00:32:10.540
A department chair went into a class and did something that was embarrassing to her immediately
00:32:15.600
Then she was appointed to be under another professor who had already publicly attacked
00:32:21.680
And she says, and I delineate them on my statement of claim, that professor then did three more
00:32:27.080
things that were injurious and damaging to her.
00:32:34.120
And again, that's talked about on my statement of claim, but she just seemed to be bullied
00:32:44.140
Obviously, it's filed in court, so it is now a publicly available document.
00:32:49.940
I think our people may not be sophisticated lawyers by training, but I think they'll have
00:32:55.720
enough common sense and knowledge to read through with great interest.
00:32:59.980
And it'll be her side of the story finally told in full.
00:33:03.560
I mean, I haven't read it yet, but I look forward to reading the details.
00:33:06.380
And I understand why you don't want to articulate everything on TV as opposed to just in court.
00:33:12.560
I don't want to give the other side an opportunity to file any counter.
00:33:20.100
And I can see right away that it's very wise that she's chosen you to be her counsel.
00:33:27.500
Just so we're clear for your listeners and viewers, when you read it, it will be very easy
00:33:38.680
Well, I'm glad you did because there's a court of law and there's the court of public opinion.
00:33:43.020
And I think this case is important in both cases.
00:33:46.700
For people who don't have kids at university or who themselves have not been on university
00:33:52.080
in a while, they probably don't quite understand how gravely academic freedom has been jeopardized.
00:33:59.320
Jordan Peterson has shone a bit of light on that.
00:34:01.580
So I think this case will have a salutary public policy impact.
00:34:07.880
You know, one thing that's very interesting, this year, in fact, yesterday, the university
00:34:13.240
reports just came out on enrollment universities and who is people's first students' first
00:34:17.800
choice and how many have enrolled or applied to different universities.
00:34:22.580
Wilfrid Laurier, of all Ontario universities, did the worst.
00:34:30.600
Obviously, people here, either students and parents of students, heard about all of this
00:34:36.580
and said, I don't want my kid or I don't want myself to be going to Wilfrid Laurier.
00:34:41.520
It's obviously, if the 40 or 50 universities in the province, the fact that it came absolutely
00:34:52.220
And what a reality check on the university that's an echo chamber that probably thinks
00:34:58.920
what they're doing is completely normal because to them it is, because they're just rebreathing
00:35:04.680
Whereas when the public sees this, they say, yikes, we're just going to slowly back away
00:35:20.060
To me, one of the main reasons that Ford did so well, despite his particular blemishes,
00:35:34.860
Now, just in terms of the legal steps, because our people follow lawsuits.
00:35:38.700
You filed, I take it was called a statement of claim.
00:35:40.960
The university has a certain period of time to reply.
00:35:43.800
They can perhaps ask for an extension, which is normally granted just out of a courtesy.
00:35:50.200
But this thing, it seems to me that their statement of defense will be interesting because
00:35:56.300
it'll give an insight into their mind of how they justify this conduct.
00:36:00.820
But I have to tell you what excites me a lot about this is the documentary discovery, as
00:36:08.600
in the ability of you and Lindsay to have access to internal university records, whether
00:36:19.300
There are some things that are subject to their lawyer's privacy, solicitor-client privilege.
00:36:24.180
But if they had a staff meeting, if they had memos, that would all be disclosable to you.
00:36:33.020
And at one point, here's one bit from the statement of claim from our next professor.
00:36:41.520
And then her syllabus was a land acknowledgment.
00:36:44.620
The Aboriginal land acknowledgments, head of every speech these days everywhere.
00:36:48.700
But in any event, she thought this was just a ridiculous piece of political correctness
00:36:54.340
to show a land acknowledgment at the top of a syllabus.
00:36:57.780
So she took the land acknowledgment, the little excerpt from the top of the syllabus, and tweeted
00:37:05.480
We're not even having territorial acknowledgments on syllabus.
00:37:07.780
So the professor called her on the carpet and told her she must delete it right away.
00:37:18.600
She said, you are violating my intellectual property.
00:37:24.940
And she said, she was going to complain to the dean if she didn't take it down.
00:37:28.860
And the dean came back to her and said, it's not her intellectual property, Professor Nicholson's.
00:37:39.420
We know that there was a meeting held by the dean with certain members of the faculty immediately
00:37:50.180
We'll find out what was discussed, an examination for discovery, and if any minutes were taken.
00:37:54.200
That's an example of the kind of thing that we're going to find out.
00:37:56.940
Were these professors reprimanded, Rambucana, Pimlott, and Adrienne Joel?
00:38:05.760
Why did Deborah McClatchy, the president, refuse to not say, I'm giving a double negative.
00:38:14.940
On Steve Payton's TVO, right after this all broke, Payton asked McClatchy repeatedly, did
00:38:23.600
And she, in terms of showing the Jordan Peterson clip, and McClatchy would not say that she
00:38:31.780
had done nothing wrong, lying she had done something wrong.
00:38:35.300
Well, it was only after, of course, there was massive public outcry that then she tried
00:38:41.500
to sanitize the whole thing with an investigation and then admitted that she had done nothing
00:38:46.600
But that was not her initial reaction, because my understanding of McClatchy is historically
00:38:54.680
And I'd like to know the memos between McClatchy's office and others.
00:39:01.240
I'd like to see if they were disparaging her privately while claiming to be fair to her
00:39:09.160
I'd like to see if the fix was in privately while they were claiming to have fair procedure
00:39:19.000
And just before you go on on that point, what memos were there just before that meeting?
00:39:27.040
Because, of course, to have any sort of procedural fairness, the meeting has to be meaningful,
00:39:33.800
as in she could say something that would exculpate her.
00:39:37.480
But if the fix was in to begin with, then it wasn't a real investigation.
00:39:42.380
It was a bullying session because there could be no other outcome.
00:39:47.160
And as we're last to remove ourselves from that particular interrogation, inquisition,
00:40:00.380
I look forward to reading this case in detail and following it as it goes every step of the
00:40:05.300
I have to tell you, the more I think through the documentary discovery and the oral...
00:40:15.740
Are you suing the university only or are there particular individuals?
00:40:26.720
Just from watching some of those professors, they're so chatty and they're so entitled.
00:40:33.380
I don't think they're going to be able to keep their mouths shut.
00:40:38.700
I have to say, I believe in my bones that the essential claim that Lindsay's being blackballed
00:40:45.920
by this university's conduct, I believe that in my bones.
00:40:48.480
And I think we'll see what the judge has to say.
00:40:51.400
We'll see what the statement of defense has to say.
00:40:53.260
But I think that this suit has some merits on the face of it.
00:40:56.420
But I am much, much more interested in the revelations that will be elicited by this.
00:41:04.340
It was the revelation of the private interrogation that got this whole story going to begin with.
00:41:10.760
And I think now you're going to blow that up tenfold with all this documentary discovery.
00:41:15.320
This might be the most important academic freedom lawsuit in a generation.
00:41:21.860
You've got the worst case that we can think of in memory with the worst actors.
00:41:27.000
And now you're going to get their internal memos.
00:41:32.620
I just hope it doesn't settle because there's such an important social good in my view.
00:41:40.080
The social justice warriors will no longer be able to believe they can conduct themselves the way they have
00:41:46.020
for the last so many years with impunity that the light will be shown on them and will go after their pocketbooks.
00:41:52.660
Well, of course, the decision to settle is Lindsay's alone.
00:41:55.360
But from my few interactions with her and my observations of her, I think she's motivated by the public interest.
00:42:09.820
It doesn't look like she's trying to be an entrepreneur for financial gain.
00:42:14.340
I actually believe in her heart she's motivated by this.
00:42:17.880
It takes someone like that to take on an institution.
00:42:28.340
And please keep us posted as this moves through the courts.
00:42:31.600
And obviously, we're not going to have Lindsay on to talk about it in a manner that would in any way jeopardize the legal integrity of the case.
00:42:39.640
So maybe we can talk to you from time to time because we know you'll be very careful about that.
00:42:44.040
Well, Ezra, look, I'm a lawyer, but I'm also clinically active, as you probably know.
00:42:51.920
I have personal interest in stopping the type of nonsense that occurred here.
00:43:07.180
I mean, you're actually you are a working lawyer at Levitt LLP.
00:43:12.520
I can't tell you how excited I am to have you on this file.
00:43:17.520
We talked with John Carpe, who's another public interest lawyer.
00:43:21.000
And there's very few public interest lawyers on our side of the aisle on these things.
00:43:25.120
So on behalf of our viewers, let me say thank you.
00:43:27.580
I feel like Lindsay's in good hands and I feel like she will make an outstanding plaintiff.
00:43:37.560
He's an employment lawyer with Levitt LLP, the author of six legal textbooks.
00:43:43.100
Of course, he's also a columnist for the National Post.
00:43:45.640
And I am thrilled that he is representing Lindsay Shepard in The More I Think About It,
00:43:50.960
the more I think this case will be important for the whole country, not just for Lindsay Shepard.
00:44:10.820
Well, one of the things that I've encountered in recent years, and I'm not alone, but I follow
00:44:15.320
it more closely now, is something called de-platforming.
00:44:22.840
You have a platform to say something, a stage on a theater, a website, even social media platforms
00:44:31.580
Well, the left these days doesn't believe in getting on the platform with you and having
00:44:37.140
You don't actually see that many rollicking debates between right and left anymore, do
00:44:42.480
And so if there's a conservative event, like, for example, when we had a conference at the
00:44:47.400
Monte Cassino Conference Center and Hotel in Toronto, the left didn't show up to debate
00:44:52.580
They showed up to threaten the hotel to have them tear up the contract for our event.
00:44:57.020
It's de-platforming, and it's spreading, which brings us to today's story.
00:45:03.260
Last November, a private group of people wanted to rent out space at the Ottawa Public Library
00:45:09.780
to play a movie for a group of people who would get tickets.
00:45:16.280
They're meeting places, and a contract was signed.
00:45:19.920
Well, the subject matter of the movie was controversial, which is what leftists call anything they want
00:45:33.940
They came to shut it down, and indeed, they pressured the Ottawa Public Library.
00:45:38.240
And after approving this event and signing a contract, they ripped it up, banning the movie
00:45:48.280
So, Canada's sole civil liberties lawyer, or maybe with one or two exceptions, our friend
00:45:54.180
John Carpe in the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom, is here to set that right.
00:46:07.300
And I want to get the name of the documentary right.
00:46:08.980
It's called Killing Europe, which is a spicy title.
00:46:12.700
Tell me a little bit about the movie and this movie event at the Ottawa Public Library.
00:46:16.040
So, Killing Europe was done by a Danish guy who emigrated to the United States, and 15
00:46:22.620
years later, he came back, and he found Denmark was very transformed.
00:46:26.940
They had big concrete barriers in the downtown to stop any driving terrorism attacks where
00:46:34.200
the truck goes along the streets or kills people.
00:46:37.180
And he interviews a lot of people about the big wave of immigrants in 2015.
00:46:43.000
And his documentary suggests that, you know, this is not all good for Europe to have had
00:46:50.540
this large wave of young single men, and talks about the impact of immigration on Europe,
00:46:58.040
talks about the effect, looks at, for example, rape statistics in Norway and Sweden, which have
00:47:11.440
I think it certainly articulates a perspective.
00:47:14.880
But the Ottawa Library, just for political pressure reasons, they signed the contract and they
00:47:23.360
On the screen right now, we're showing some excerpts from that film.
00:47:30.080
I mean, she came from a Muslim country to Sweden, and she left Islam as being under attack.
00:47:38.760
So, these are people, they have a strong political point of view.
00:47:46.320
They're just having a debate about open borders, Islam, immigration.
00:47:51.260
I mean, I've personally met some of those folks, and they're very pleasant, actually.
00:47:55.240
In fact, many of them have to be in hiding because they're being bullied.
00:47:58.680
What excuse did the library give for shutting down this film?
00:48:04.660
I mean, you can disagree with the film, but is the new rule that only films the library
00:48:11.980
The pretext was a violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code by virtue of this movie.
00:48:17.660
But the Human Rights Code, did they give a particular what this movie broke this rule?
00:48:27.980
It's like, you know, well, you know, the rebel is against the Ontario Human Rights Code.
00:48:32.680
I mean, it's a platitude designed to intimidate.
00:48:36.160
It was a local lawyer, left-wing activist, Richard Warman, who got his, you know, social
00:48:44.180
And people were writing to the mayor of Ottawa and city councillors.
00:48:48.060
And then pressure was put on the, and they were writing to the library staff and people
00:48:54.280
And so they caved to political pressure, that this was a hateful extremist, you know, the
00:49:00.300
But there's nothing in the movie that would fall afoul of the Canada Human Rights Act or
00:49:07.040
the Criminal Code or even the human rights legislation.
00:49:11.900
Other than just the bold statement, this is against the law, was there anything specific
00:49:19.060
Did they say this word or this, they just said, we've heard this or that?
00:49:23.280
No, and there's no reference to the movie because you would be hard pressed.
00:49:26.760
If you saw the movie, you would see it consists of, you know, interviews and video photos.
00:49:34.520
And, you know, I mean, frankly, let me just say, she's a woman of color, an immigrant who
00:49:41.480
That's ticking a lot of politically correct boxes.
00:49:43.720
Frankly, I thought she was very passionate and very thoughtful.
00:49:49.480
How did they communicate to the folks who booked the venue?
00:49:58.300
The organizer was Madeline Weld, who's based in Ottawa.
00:50:07.080
And so they told Madeline, first they said, you have to get security and pay for security.
00:50:13.220
She said yes to that, which is pretty generous.
00:50:21.860
That's an issue in some other court cases we're doing.
00:50:23.980
But so Madeline was then told, first she was told to get security, and then she was just
00:50:31.520
The thing, too, is this is not a film that's being forced on anybody by being in the main
00:50:38.020
This is a film that would be like a private event with an event break or whatever and
00:50:45.380
I don't know the price, but probably five or ten bucks or $15.
00:50:48.020
So no one is seeing this that doesn't say, yes, I want to see it, and here's $5 that
00:50:54.820
And the other great thing they had was that the producer of the movie himself was present,
00:50:59.720
and he would have been there for Q&A after the movie.
00:51:03.500
You know, the best film festivals, and I've had the chance to go to a few, they take questions.
00:51:12.900
If someone had an objective, did anyone, well, I guess the event didn't happen, did
00:51:16.580
anyone that you know of, did any of the critics say, I'm going to come, I want to come and
00:51:25.860
So the JCCF, the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, in my mind, the leading civil liberties
00:51:39.760
Madeleine Weld and Valerie Thomas, who was another organizer.
00:51:50.620
Our court cases are always, we want to get the court to uphold the rights.
00:51:54.120
And we're saying it was contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
00:51:57.960
Because they're a government-owned public building.
00:52:00.620
And what's interesting about the charter is the charter free expression right is not only
00:52:06.080
your right and my right and everybody else's right to speak, it's also a right to hear
00:52:13.220
It's not just the right of Madeleine Weld to speak by showing this movie or the producer
00:52:23.980
But it's the right of people to see and hear and listen is part of the free expression rights.
00:52:31.420
If there are people who wanted to pay five bucks, why should they not be able to hear
00:52:35.700
something they want to hear, even if they want to hear it, because they disagree with
00:52:39.660
it or they want to know what the other side thinks.
00:52:43.460
And their right to question the producer and to listen to what he had to say.
00:52:48.420
Do we have any case law in Canada that says there is a right to listen?
00:52:58.420
So you've served the lawsuit on the library or you're about to do that?
00:53:02.080
And obviously they haven't had a chance to reply yet.
00:53:05.320
Now, they'll have government resources at their disposal.
00:53:12.640
Governments are not shy about spending taxpayers' money on court cases, whether their case has
00:53:18.980
I mean, the University of Calgary has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know,
00:53:22.860
fighting for its right to censor speech on campus.
00:53:28.860
Now, libraries, of all places, have a reputation of free speech.
00:53:32.720
I mean, I'm a controversial fellow in some quarters, but I was invited by the Toronto Librarians
00:53:41.640
To invite a right-wing guy like me to speak to their library convention, that's true.
00:53:46.300
And they wanted me to talk about freedom of speech.
00:53:49.400
And this was a few years ago, and I was well-received.
00:53:51.880
And librarians are sort of the keeper of free speech in a way, because there are books in
00:54:01.260
And you've got to be able to say, look, if you don't like that book, don't read it.
00:54:04.300
And maybe we're going to put some things on the top shelf so kids don't see it.
00:54:07.620
And maybe there's some things that we might even have in a special collection.
00:54:10.460
But I don't think even Mein Kampf should be banned.
00:54:13.820
I'm a Jew, and I obviously don't like Nazism, but surely it's a historical work that we ought
00:54:19.600
So I think librarians historically have been keepers of freedom.
00:54:23.200
To have librarians be censors is so contrary to their nature.
00:54:29.800
Because, you know, you could see this movie, Killing Europe.
00:54:34.680
The point is that the public authorities, because it's a government body, if it was a purely
00:54:41.100
If you're a private entity, you do whatever you want.
00:54:44.900
And we're saying you cannot cave to political correctness and start censoring viewpoints
00:55:01.420
I know you have staff lawyers, so you're not spending money hiring expensive lawyers to
00:55:08.840
And I asked you before we turn the cameras on if we could try and scare together a little
00:55:13.480
I'm going to put in $50 myself, just as a symbolic, because I know even just to file
00:55:20.780
I'm going to see if we can put together $2,000 just to assist, because I know that you aren't
00:55:29.300
Because you're taking on the government every time.
00:55:37.900
And if you want to join me, I'm putting in $50.
00:55:40.160
If you want to put in $50, if you can only afford $5, that's fine.
00:55:43.460
And why don't we run this for a week and see what we can do, and then we'll send you the
00:55:52.500
By the way, give me an update on your Man of the Year Award before we go.
00:55:57.200
So, George Jonas, a personal friend, somebody whom I admired.
00:56:01.220
He was a national post-columnist, author of many books.
00:56:07.400
Fled the country after the unsuccessful 1956 uprising.
00:56:16.280
And with the blessing of Maya Jonas, his wife, we have set up the George Jonas Freedom Award.
00:56:33.040
And the first recipient is going to be Mark Stein.
00:56:40.720
He himself has, of course, been subject to censorship for what he wrote.
00:56:53.300
We've kept the ticket prices down so that the primary purpose is to honor George Jonas.
00:56:58.660
And so, yeah, we're going to break-even on the dinner.
00:57:09.920
The JCCF has really grown and is really doing exciting things.
00:57:13.420
I won't get into other cases now, but whenever you have a case, let us know about it, if
00:57:23.440
I think it's important that libraries become places of open dialogue, not censorship.
00:57:28.120
Were you going to say one more thing there, I thought?
00:57:30.460
I thought I heard you inhale about to say something.
00:57:48.660
On my interview yesterday with David Horowitz, Derebura writes,
00:58:06.060
You know, I apologize again, the Skype connection was a little scratchy, but I thought, you know,
00:58:10.280
we got to do it anyways, because even though it was a little bit scratchy, I wanted to show
00:58:16.020
Alan writes, Any chance of making David Horowitz a regular?
00:58:22.180
I sense that he's, first of all, super busy with the Horowitz Freedom Center.
00:58:32.640
And maybe if he did something, he would do something through his own institution.
00:58:50.840
Bob and Iris write, I have to tell you, Ezra, that every time your show comes on and our
00:58:55.300
male German shepherd hears your voice, he starts barking and demanding cookies.
00:59:08.440
And I think that's an interesting Pavlovian response, if you know what I mean.
00:59:13.580
And the funny thing is, whenever the show comes on, I sort of crave cookies, too.
00:59:31.880
Until then, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, good night and keep